My blogging has been a little scattered and choppy over the last week. The reason for that would be that I took a part-time job at a local department store. It's been an interesting experience. Two weeks ago, I started looking for a job and putting in applications at a few places. Last Monday, I went to this store to turn in my job application, had an interview on the spot, was hired that afternoon, went to orientation the next night, and today is only my second day off since. I was so exhausted the first few days that I could hardly stand it. My feet hurt so bad. I've adjusted to it now, though, so I think I'm going to be able to stay with it.
As far as liking or disliking it -- I'm sort of neutral. The environment is not bad and the people I work with have mostly seemed pretty nice. The job is just a job. It takes up a much larger portion of my day than I had counted on because by the time I take time to dress for it, allow extra travel time in case of traffic, work my shift and drive home, it seems like I've spent the whole day at work even if I've only clocked six hours. I definitely prefer being home to being at work, but I don't hate the job.
Learning how to do the job has been another experience. I work the cash register. Doesn't that sound so simple? Not when you have to learn how to take every kind of payment, make exchanges, operate the computer, make the scanner work, remove hangers from clothes, and bag purchases, all while interacting with customers who are convinced that practically every item on their ticket was supposed to be on a better sale. Someone trained me for about thirty minutes on my first day, but since then I've been mostly on my own to figure everything out, with somebody (hopefully) at the next register in case I don't know what to do. One of the worst things happened my second day. There was another cashier working with me, but she had left me alone while she took a fifteen minute break. Literally two customers after she left, I had big problems. I accidentally keyed in the wrong amount for her purchases (the screen is really touch-sensitive) so the computer calculated the change with all the wrong numbers and I nearly had a panic attack. Nobody had shown me how to work the telephone, so I couldn't page for help and literally everybody but me was on their lunch break. I was standing there frantic, unsure of what to do, when another cashier happened to walk through the doors and told me how to fix it. What I was really glad of was that the woman whose order I messed up and the next two people in line were so nice and patient. They didn't seem annoyed at all that I took fifteen minutes to solve a problem.
On the other hand, there have been people who have been really annoyed with everything and irate when I couldn't give them back a coupon to use again. So it's definitely been a learning experience about people. The main thing I have learned so far? Be nice to everybody, whether you're the customer or the cashier!
P.S. Blogger's spell check has not been working all week, so please forgive any typos :)
2 comments:
That sounds exactly like the kinds of things that happen to me ... I mean, about the other cahier going for a break and some customers arriving as soon as she had left! It's a blessing that the ladies you were serving were so nice! :->
P.S. I didn't notice any typos, but if I had done so ... din't worry, my blogger spell check isn't working either! Fun! :-P
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